FROM MARKAZ TO MULK: LAHORE, MAGAZINES, AND THE PLACE OF URDU IN LATE COLONIAL INDIA, 1900-1950
This dissertation examines how geographies such as the city, region, country, and world were elaborated in and contributed to the development of 20th century Urdu culture. Focusing on Lahore, where Urdu was not the native language, I show how the city came to be recognized as an important space of Urdu literature and publishing. Lahore rose to the status of a markaz, or center, as part of complex historical processes that encouraged writers to position Urdu as a national language rather than as the mother tongue of Delhi and Lucknow. I trace these important changes to highlight fissures internal to Urdu writing. I show how geographic categories informed linguistic authority as well as the possibilities and responsibilities associated with Urdu literature. This project explores how imaginings of Punjab, Pakistan, and the world shaped the horizons of Urdu literature in the 20th century. Methodologically, it privileges Lahore’s Urdu magazines as a site of analysis. Foregrounding not just the texts they contain, but their economics, material form, and the social relations they entailed, From Markaz to Mulk offers a multifaceted engagement with this important literary genre.
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